Ashridge Farm
What on earth is going on at Ashridge Farm?
Stayed over Christmas but were told they had boiler troubles so only one male shower available and two wash basins. Presumably the same for the ladies. A few days ago one of the two male toilets was closed, apparently waiting for an engineer to repair. Today there are notes all over the place saying they have run out of gas so no hot water for showers or basins or presumably washing machine facility either!
It's now over 20 days since the boiler issue, and no sign of any remedial work being carried out on the toilets either and now with no hot water would it be reasonable to suggest the club offers a refund to members being inconvenienced for this failure to provide the facilities we are paying for?
What say you fellow members?
Comments
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Leave.
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A 'typical' Club offering gives you a pitch, a peg, an EHU point and a toilet/shower block and can cost from £30-£50 for a couple.
take away the use of the shower block and it becomes a mightily expensive parking space.
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I'm interested to know the explanation as well
JK
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The OP mentions staying over Christmas but I assume they are still there? The current price for two is £23 a night less any VAT reduction, obviously it was more over Christmas/New Year. I don't know the Club policy of such things so probably best to write direct to the Club having first spoken to the site manager. Sometimes when there have been long term problems on a site fees are reduced whilst it is sorted out. Perhaps that doesn't count when they can provide some facilities? I also note you have not submitted a review of the site which might be an idea as well. We like the site and have stayed a couple of times but when ever we stay on site we use our own facilities so the problems would have probably passed me by.
David
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Interesting post? we have stayed at Ashridge Farm several times (close to home but also is like staying in someone's back garden,) and very close to a lovely village
Very surprised at the Problems? the op has encountered, as I thought bulk gas was on a rolling contract? and boilers.etc were part of an outsourcing contract with a set time limit for attendance? .
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That sounds like two issues to me🤔 Is it a boiler problem, or is it a gas supply problem? Assume it’s not on mains gas, as that couldn’t run out🤷♀️
Then there’s the loos….. Depends what the Warden’s are empowered to fix. This is where everything being out to contract falls down, customer (Club) is entirely dependent upon someone else’s service and supply. Can understand contract for gas supply, but a qualified, multi skilled (gas fitter, electrician, handyman, etc….) post, with a roving brief, might just get things moving quicker for the Club’s customers. Just a thought……..🤔1 -
Perhaps one of the differences between the Club, which has on site manpower at a minimum and relies to a degree on outside help/contractors, and some commercials which are large enough to in their own right to have maintenance team/man on site who's full time job it is to look after plumbing, heating, electrics etc...?
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Hi
Just a thought. I believe we are running covid secure facilities again so the would mean every other shower / toilet being closed, could that be why? Waiting for engineers is the norm nowadays, you can wait days / weeks for a simple repair we're not allowed to attend. Similar for gas supplies, in August 2020 we had a tank (on telemetry) run dry and had to wait days because of lorry driver shortage. Could be any of those?
Washing machines are cold fill.
JK
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I can confirm how the contract is/was working when some friends of ours ,had a problem on their site when a member reversed and demolished an EHU bollard ,which knocked out a complete area of their site,
The local Electrician was at another site close by doing annual testing ,and said he would come straight away, but to clear it with the regional manager,,
Thats when the problems started, no you must contact the outsourced company ,to get an estimate? who it seems gave a guestimate, which was very high? and was accepted by EGH ,
The local Electrician was contacted by the outsourced company, who arrived later that day, and fixed the problem ,with some parts that the site had accumulated over the years from other "mishaps" in just over an hour
It cost the club when paying for the job nearly £1000
Our friends mentioned the cost to the local electrician., who said it was less than a quarter of the price he was paid
Now you know why site prices keep going up
This was relayed to us when we next met up
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I agree with what you say JK, and you have in fact confirmed what I thought about staff being empowered to carry out fairly simple repairs. Hence my suggestion of a multi million pound company having some kind of in-house capability for doing repairs requiring a skill set beyond what you could expect a Site Manager to carry out. (Some Site staff will have lots of such skills, but insurance will prohibit.)
So two years into a pandemic, throw in maybe other issues around supply and demand chains, and maybe time to think outside the box again, even if temporary. Existing contracts will have to be honoured of course. Negotiating any contract for repairs should carry a time limit so that failure to deliver results in penalties for contractor. Then the Club could off set giving back a small amount to disappointed customers where suitable?The Club no doubt has a small phalanx of IT staff, dedicated to keeping the bookings coming in (and so it should have), it just needs to consider something similar out on the Sites possibly? Even if temporary?
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That’s how a lot of contracting works JV☹️ The Contracting company will be making a lot more money than any individual offering services. That’s how GB works nowadays. Any Tom, Dick or Harry company can put in a bid, make a few promises, and away they go. (That’s been confirmed in spades over the last 23 months.) The real trick is to carry out due diligence checks, build and implement stringent delivery checks, and a boot them out clause for repeated failures. Without paying a fee for getting rid. Otherwise, it’s us, at the end of the supply chain that has to deal with the failure of services, and the lack of value for money.
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That seems where according to conversations mostly with quite a few site staff ,,this club is very much lacking, of anyone who monitors the contracts after setting up
I could tell many such incidents, but some could if this forum , as posted by Jk is being looked at for information?
Get some still employed site managers in bother
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Or get you in ‘bother’ for breaking a confidence🤷🏻♂️☹️
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I should have thought that each individual Site will have some form of monitoring and reporting regime. It will definitely include income and expenditure, and as part of this, it is likely to show any deviance in terms of overspends or under achievements against predictions and set targets? Site staff will be able to provide the accompanying information around any why or wherefore stages haven’t been achieved, and this might be for a number of reasons, not least weather, and events that might have an influence, and of course, pitches/services out of use for whatever reason. It’s then down to Area Managers, HQ to identify any recurring issues and do something about it, as soon as possible. The pandemic and possibly Brexit of course has added a whole new level of issues, but it’s something that still requires monitoring.
The Club was very proactive in a lot of ways at the outset of the pandemic, but might just be facing a different set of dilemmas, like many other businesses, with the supply chain, contracted work and outsourcing of services.0 -
Evening
The days when we phoned the local spark to attend who's five minutes down the road arfe long gone, at least 10 years now. There are systems ,procedures and protocols which we follow daily as in most workplaces. Hiring a third party will always be more expensive but just say regarding electrics as an example, working safely is paramount. Not all of us knows live from neutral etc.
Bollards getting trashed happens quite a bit, but from my experience here in the south west your quote above was a bit ott. I guess different areas of the country procure differing rates?
JK
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jv, you do like to quote "many" staff quite often, I'd really like to know the actual number of staff you spoken to that are currently under contract that are "hacked off"? & who of these hacked off employees would like their personal work issues brought to the public domain? I honestly find that mind boggling and if I was that upset with my work I'd have asked for my p45. Like most companies we have an HR department and systems in place to discuss any gripes. As rocky states there are lots of jobs out there, even in our industry there are hundreds of campsite jobs. None of us are shackled to the club, seems though a few like to play keyboard warrior!
Just for info, new starter training commences in a couple of weeks and currently there's a full quota.
JK
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I am on Monday, maybe sooner if no hot water! 😅
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No it's both. No Gas and a faulty boiler, and only one male toilet for the whole site.
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Stand corrected on washing machine. I thought this may be a covert way of re-introducing covid restrictions but the wardens tell me not.
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Why not go tomorrow? Contact the club if a full refund for the unused nights and a discount on the others is not forthcoming.
Tbh, to sit it out is weakening your case.
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No, one of the two boilers is not working hence restriction on showers, however gas problem only kicked in yesterday so no hot water. Oh and only one male loo for the site.
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I don't want to leave. I Like it here, it's close to family and a lovely site. That's the point, it's not the site that's the problem it's the clubs lack of response to the issues on site and why I suggested in my original post that maybe the club should honour a discount for the inconvenience.
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Sorry to ask but have you talked about this to the wardens? As described somewhere the first thing to do is to see the wardens and see what discount might be available. Also get more details about the problem, what is causing it and when will it be resolved. The more you find out now the more you can write into the club about as a formal complaint later on.
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Good advice above from Corners but you really need to start making your voice heard now and not wait until later before requesting a discount. Don’t suggest the club gives a discount but ask for one in fairly strong terms.
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